The odd little cameo?

[VindePays2009]

Well, we're unbeaten for a while, though not accumulating points at a rate that can save us.

And our great white hope is now injured.

According to SD, the youngsters on our bench are good for short cameo appearances, but can't be relied on if the going gets tough (i.e. if they're kicked... hard).

I'm not altogether sure about this. Blooding the likes of Ainley and Kirk in the eighty-somethingth minute is very unlikely to pay off. If, as he also says, they just might pull off a surprise, why not find out if they're capable by giving them a start? If they turn out to be totally overwhelmed by the occasion, they can always be hooked at half time, as Vaughany was in his first start, against Blackburn, and it didn't do him much harm. A slightly weak link up front is neither here nor there if our defenders start the game so poorly that the whole team is immediately under the cosh.

Saunders is hardly prolific, so the one most deserving at the moment is probably Kirk. He scores

[Timmy58]

All well and good and I don't necessarily disagree. But imagine the comments on here from the "Anti Academy" brigade if the manager does as you suggest and it goes belly up and we get relegated anyway. It was an appalling start on Wednesday but I am not sure that blooding youngsters in matches of this nature is wholly right. We need a settled team as far as possible especially during the revival.

[AlexLeicester]

I wasn't at Rochdale, but the games I did see Seager play showed him to be an energetic, buzzing, enthusiastic youngster. Saunders has shown some of those qualities. The problem lies in these youngsters' ability to survive physical, hard confrontations. You can teach them skills, teamwork etc; you can't teach them how to take a full-blooded, fouling tackle that's designed to put you out of the game. Seager 'rolled with it' better than our own, so maybe we need a similar attacker. Loanees up front also seem to add energy to the entire front line, e.g. Lowe and Seager.

[paddockrefugee]

[quote="Timmy58" brigade if the manager does as you suggest and it goes belly up and we get relegated anyway. It was an appalling start on Wednesday but I am not sure that blooding youngsters in matches of this nature is wholly right. We need a settled team as far as possible especially during the revival.[/quote]

Who did we play on Wednesday? ;D

[Timmy58]

Alright smart arse. So, I don't know what day it is.